The pound fares had returned to National Express and I'd snapped up a couple to Birmingham and back, two and half hours from London, quicker than some trains I believe! The whole day was starting at £22.70 with the match ticket and a return to the Bescot Stadium, a good start, something had to go wrong.
Birmingham is not my favourite city. Manchester, Liverpool, er, Wolverhampton, all a joy to walk around, marvelling at wonderful Victorian buildings, finding a side street with a decent pub in. Birmingham has the Bull Ring. (Sadly I was four days early for the 'new' updated Bull Ring, opening on Wednesday, couldn't really see what they were doing to improve it!)
The coach station, which was to be replaced by a spanking new one that looked great as a model but not sure when we would see the real thing, was, as ever, in a less than striking part of town. There was a surreal moment when I looked at the departure times and at 12.45 there was a 305 to .....Southend-On-Sea which took nine hours and went via Trumpington in Cambridgeshire! Don't mock, with a team led by Captain Flack and a forward line of Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub, they could do well.
Now I don't like writing up Pub Crawls when I haven't actually been in the pubs, asking for trouble. So off I went to find the two I had recommended that were in the city centre.
5 minutes later I saw the Shakespeare, but as it was so near New Street station, the further away Old Contemptibles had to be found first. Big mistake.
35 minutes later and a walk half way around Brum I still hadn't found it. I had the map, but could I follow it? There was no such thing as a straight line as you always found another shopping centre or twenty story hotel in the way.
Eventually I saw a Weatherspoons, called, er, 'Weatherspoons', that had opened in one such shopping centre. Not brilliant but not the scary 'Square Peg mentioned in the Crawl and sold some decent beers including an 'Olympic' special. Gold, Silver and Bronze in order of alcoholic strength! The Gold was off, so the 4.5% Silver it was and a very nice pint at £2.20.
I was a man refreshed for the task ahead, though it was now after One and there was a further train to get to Walsall. Then I saw the Old Royal, didn't know about that one, looks good, sells London Pride, oh there's time! They had the Southampton Blackpool match on, hope Peter Clarke wasn't watching.
A very fine ale, well worth the wait, just!
Out of that pub, a look left and there was the Old Contemptibles, named after a Brummie world war 1 fighting unit I believe. Anyway, the wait was worth while, it was an oasis in a desert devoid of decent pubs. Beautiful to look at inside and out there was a choice of three permenant real ales and two guest ones that regulars voted on! This month they had the excellent Cornwall beer 'Doom Bar' but I choose the Scottish award winning Harviestoun 'Bitter and Twisted', 3.8% and a sharp, blond beer with a superb fresh hop profile. Beautiful. I wanted more, but the watch was now showing close to train time if I was to have one in the Shakespeare to end my quest. Easier said than done.
I somehow went the wrong way, no smart ass 'not surprising' comments at the back please, I just couldn't suss out Birmingham even with a decent map in front of me, I've never known a city with so many ring roads or building works going on, there were more cranes on view than London, and that's saying something. Birmingham was a big building site.
Trying to find the Shakespeare again I found myself in another shopping centre that must have had 15 floors. I could see the station but couldn't get out! Down and around I went but never an exit, I was alive in my own nightmare! Eventually I escaped but no chance of another pint and lucky too, as the 14.27 I had written down was in fact a 14.13! As it was 14.07 there was 6 minutes to get a ticket and find the platform, both tasks completed with seconds to spare!
The journey was easy, took 20 minutes and the Bescot Stadium, the name of the station, was a 5 minute walk away. Good stuff.
This time Blues fans were placed in their west stand as there were not enough home fans to fill that and stewarding was easier than having us in the normal away end. I'd say 400 plus, maybe closer to 500. A good noise was made anyway, at the start.
The full match report can be read at www.thelittlegazette.com/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=405046 as I don't want to interfere in any private grief. The defence that many felt was going to be our strong point just fell away in a crazy second half.
Going back to the opening 45 though what was their goal scorer Reich doing punching the air at a Southend Bucket and Spade FC flag at the empty end? Was he making a point, did he think it was a Walsall flag, or is he just an idiot?
A hoofed cleared from the Walsall defence allows Clarkey the time to head clear, he tries to chest it down, it bounces away from him, Walsall now have the ball in an attacking position, the rest of the defence starting to clear their lines rush back, and danger has been created from relative safety. This certainly sent signals to me that all was not well with the Southend centre half which was confirmed in the second period. This position should have been made a priority by Tilly back in June and not just with Sankofa.
A three goal defeat was rough but we did deserve to lose, having built their confidence up in that mad two minutes after half time they started to pass the ball around like champions elect and now we've turned a hopeful selection in Demontagnac, who had looked a bit of a joke in the first half placing the ball over the stand on a number of occasions as well as picking up a needless yellow card, into an X-Factor winner. Hopefully he'll end up as Steve Brookstein.
There were some mindless shouting at the team at the end of the game but no hiding the concern that with only one other defender on the bench and a very young untried deputy keeper the back five are in a strong position, bar suspension or injury will Tilly drop anyone? There's no Lewis Hunt this season to shore up the defence as last and no ex-Captain Kev to help out an under pressure midfield. He's done it before but with the squad we have and the first deadline approaching closure at midnight tonight, can he do it again? In T&B we trust, let's not panic in September!
Marks:
Mildenhall - 5: Not going to pile in as others have as I thought he did some decent work, the fifth was a howler but he needs more protection.
Francis - 5: Not a good day as his defensive frailties came back to haunt him. The runs upfield rarely came off as usual.
Clarke - 5: The Clarke-Barrett playing together arguments have been raised again, needs to be addressed by Tilly but will he?
Barrett - 6: Not his usual confident self but a slightly better game than his defensive partner.
Harding- 8: Outstanding, a class above everybody else even when chaos reigned around him. Needs to see more from the team or he wont be around Feb. 1.
Betsy - 6: The odd mazy run, certainly has the strength to keep defenders at bay, has a good shot on him, but we need to see more of the finished product.
Sawyer - 7: Worked very hard, obviously has talent, but should not play in the same midfield as Grant. Has a strange habit of running around in circles.
Grant- 6: Deserves an extra mark for his headed goal, brilliant. Tackles hard, but far too inconsistant to remain a regular.
Kanu - 7: Great strike for the equaliser and did some useful stuff out wide. Suffered in the second half along with most of the team!
Revell - 6: I thought we were there with Alex. Has looked far stronger on the ground and in the air lately, then missed that clear heading chance, frustrating!
Barnard - 7: Always worked hard but playing far too deep at times knowing he will not get those great through balls that he received so regularly last season.
Subs: Walker - 6: Did well when he came on, linking well with the good Lord, his pass giving him the second goal, should edge out Revell for Carlisle.
Scannell - 6: Not too much time to shine but did enough to maybe get a game ahead of Betsy, certainly for the JPT.
There was a very angry True Blue and friends on the train back to Brum but it all went peacefully enough where I was determined to get that pint in the Shakespeare six hours later than originally planned!
To be honest, after all that effort, it wasn't up to much, they did sell Everards Tiger beer, but the barrel emptied half way through my pint which somehow summed up the day! The now ubiquitous Caledonian Deuchars IPA was the replacement and it did it's job.
Could the day get worse, well my coach was delayed, what could I do to kill 45 minutes? Then I saw it, 'The Spotted Dog', with paint peeling off the walls, a stranger set of regulars you could ever see outside a pub in Colchester, a barmaid I would not pick a fight with, maybe this was a mistake. No CAMRA winning ales here. Still, 2 pints of Strongbow 'Extra Cold', which seems just an excuse to reduce the taste of any actual cider, but at £2.60, blimey that's a happy hour in the smoke, it made the journey home much, much easier.
Come on you Blues!!!!!